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Cancer patients urged to ask their doctors about clinical trials

Richard McClelland, operations lead of London's Lawson Health Research Institute, addresses a crowd at Sarnia's Central United Church while clinical research coordinator Kes Sebborn looks on. The pair were guest speakers at Tuesday's Central Forum, providing insight into ongoing cancer research. More than 60 clinical cancer trials are currently ongoing through the London-based institute, a research arm of the London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph's Health Care. Barbara Simpson/Sarnia Observer/Postmedia Network

Even as the range of cancer treatments continues to grow, few patients are making themselves aware of potentially life-saving clinical trials, says the head of a clinical cancer research unit.

“Sadly only a few patients will ever be offered a clinical trial,” said Richard McClelland, operations lead of the unit at London's Lawson Health Research Institute.

McClelland knows firsthand the chasm that often exists between cancer research and patients after his own battle with basal cell carcinoma – the most common type of skin cancer.

“I was a cancer patient and I wasn't aware of clinical trials until I researched it,” he said.

In some cases, he said doctors may simply forget to mention clinical trials to patients due to the overworked nature of their offices, he noted.

But he and fellow cancer researchers are hoping their ongoing education efforts – including internally with the health-care community – will be the right medicine to change the tide.

McClelland and his colleague Kes Sebborn, the unit's clinical research coordinator, offered the public insight into the scientific breakthroughs being made in cancer research during a Central Forum presentation Tuesday morning in Sarnia.

More than 60 clinical cancer trials are currently underway at the London-based institute. It serves as the research arm of London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph's Health Care.

At the institute, cancer researchers conduct all four phases of a clinical trial – from early concept through to getting Health Canada approval – on a variety of treatments. These include drugs, surgery, radiation and even immunotherapy – a treatment option receiving widespread media attention.

Immunotherapy essentially rallies a cancer patient's immune system to fight the cancer cells that have slipped past the immune system like a spy, Sebborn said.

“If we can try to take off the disguise – the trench coat and the glasses – of the cancer, your immune system will say, 'Wait a minute,' and fight the cancer cells,” she said.

A wider range of treatment options will be the closest thing the public will get to the much-speculated 'cancer cure,' McClelland noted, adding researchers don't believe in the concept of a cure because cancer is complex and treatments affect people differently.

“Cancer isn't one disease,” he said. “It's many, many diseases.”

The benchmark of success is instead the number of patients who go on to become cancer-free for at least five years, he noted.

“We're seeing more and more surviving and thriving,” he said.

Work of the London-based research unit has contributed to a variety of drugs being made available for public use. These include Sorafenib – a kidney and liver cancer-fighting drug – through to the chemotherapy drug Gemcitabine to treat lung, bladder, pancreatic and breast cancers.

Even thalidomide – once a morning sickness drug infamous for causing limb malformation in babies – is now successfully being used to treat multiple myeloma – a cancer of plasma cells – thanks in part to the institute's research.

“That's one of the things with drugs: We don't abandon medications, but we can find another pathway for drugs,” Sebborn said.

In many cases, the growing range of treatments has meant certain cancer diagnoses – like lung, breast and kidney – are often no longer a death sentence.

“Ten years ago, people with kidney cancer we'd tell them to get their affairs in order,” Sebborn said. “Now we have five different treatments, and even if the cancer metastases – or spreads – we have people who are now working full-time and on treatment and feeling great.”

But treatments – including clinical trials for new therapies – can only work if patients are aware of them, McClelland noted.

Cancer patients should do their homework on treatments and not be afraid to ask their doctors if they qualify for clinical trials.

Doctors are often regularly involved in clinical trials for cancer therapies, he noted, as well as scientists, universities, students, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

While some patients may not end up qualifying to participate in a study, McClelland said the likelihood is better nowadays with more clinical trials being made available for a wider range of cancer patients.